Shame on the NFL

[Bmax]

I sure this has been posted before ....But The NFL should be a shamed of itself in regard to their treatment of Retired players. The issue is retirement benefits -pensions and disability paymets..

According to a recent story on HBO's Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel the NFL pays a retired player who played 10 seasons a pension of only 24,000 a year....in comprasion Major League Baseball pays 175,000 a year.....

Bills fans who listen to WGR 55 have heard Bills Hall of Famer Joe D bash the NFL week after wek about their poor pensions ... This week at the Super Bowl Joe D and Mike Ditka let loose on the NFL and their shameful treatment of the players of the 50's -60's 70's and 80's who built the game..

Most find fault with current NFLPA President Gene Upshaw who has been quoted as saying i don't work for them i work for them the current players . The retired guys can fire me ....Upshaw of course doesn't have the same problems as Conard Dobler or Jonnie Cooks ...He currently makes 3 million a years as President of the players association. As reported on Real Sports Dobler knees are shot Just thois past year he spent 100 days in thje hospital undergoing seven knee surgeries.

The NFL recently deinied his disability claim saying that he could do seditary work... Dobler according to the story takes about a 100 -150 vicodin a month to ease his pain... Even though several other doctors have sided with his claim of being disabled the NFL has not...

Johnnie Cooks who played LB for the 90 giants is disabled at the age of 48.. The NFL has also denied his claim for disability even though the US goverenment has approved it..

In fact according to the story the NFL has approved only 115 out 9,000 Claims

Upshaw better hope he never needs help because their will be plenty of His former Colleagues who won't lift a finger to help a guy who turned his back on them..



Bmax

[SABURZFAN]

mike webster was another tragic story.

[Night Train]

The NFL is too busy trying to get rid of small market teams and make more $$. They don't have time for retirement plans.

They've had poor leadership for years, despite all the publicity stating otherwise.

[Mitchy moo]

The NFL is too busy trying to get rid of small market teams and make more $$. They don't have time for retirement plans.

They've had poor leadership for years, despite all the publicity stating otherwise.

Do you mean by bringing billions in tv contract revenues? Money fixes most business problems but this is the player's union fault, no one else to blame.

You have players with some college education representing themselves against high priced ivy league genius lawyers that can pencil you out of things without you even knowing it. The players need real representation in their next go around and people who are willing to tgive less money for the small percentage of bigger money stars and distribute it throughout the pension, health, and general welfare programs the NFL really needs.

$25,000 a year retirement pension is ~$2,080 a month, which is about one hour of Michael "ron mexico" Vicks salary.

[BillsFever21]

I don't feel bad for them and their 25k pension a year. Most of them made about 25+ million from the game during their career.

For baseball players getting 175k this is crazy. They have their 100 million dollar guranteed contracts and then when they retire they pull in a cool 175k a year.

I don't have any pension where I work for when I retire(if I'm lucky) at 65+ years old and most of them will make more in 1 season of football then I will my entire life. They work for 10 years and we have to work for 50 years.

When we can finally retire when we're just about dead we won't be getting 24k a year in social security after paying in thousands a year our entire life.

I feel so bad for them and their fat bank accounts and mansions and only getting their 24k of pension a year. They don't even need it after all the money they made.

The ones that are complaining the most are probably the crackheads that spent most of their money on hookers, strippers and cocaine/crack cocaine during their career and now they could use the money.

[Night Train]

I don't feel bad for them and their 25k pension a year. Most of them made about 25+ million from the game during their career.

Dead wrong

The big $$ didn't show up until the 1970's and the first big contracts with NBC, CBS and eventually ABC and Monday Night Football. Until then, most didn't make 6 figures and held down 2nd jobs during the off-season. I remember seeing Wray Carlton working next to my Aunt at a Sears clothing counter. A couple of the Bills lived near me in tiny houses and drove old cars.

How hard is it for owners to each pool some $$ and offer these guys some medical help and a slightly better pension ? It's not.

We're not talking about Michael Irvin getting some extra 8 ball $$. We're talking about players of all periods that can't pay medical bills from injuries sustained while playing in the NFL and a meager pension increase.

Waving a broad brush and stating they're all millionaires is beyond silly. I understand the risks as well as anyone, in relation to the reward. Some folks seriously overestimate the reward end. :shakeno:

[Michael82]

Dead wrong

The big $$ didn't show up until the 1970's and the first big contracts with NBC, CBS and eventually ABC and Monday Night Football. Until then, most didn't make 6 figures and held down 2nd jobs during the off-season. I remember seeing Wray Carlton working next to my Aunt at a Sears clothing counter. A couple of the Bills lived near me in tiny houses and drove old cars.

How hard is it for owners to each pool some $$ and offer these guys some medical help and a slightly better pension ? It's not.

We're not talking about Michael Irvin getting some extra 8 ball $$. We're talking about players of all periods that can't pay medical bills from injuries sustained while playing in the NFL and a meager pension increase.

Waving a broad brush and stating they're all millionaires is beyond silly. I understand the risks as well as anyone, in relation to the reward. Some folks seriously overestimate the reward end. :shakeno:
Great post! :bf1:

[kgun12]

I don't feel bad for them and their 25k pension a year. Most of them made about 25+ million from the game during their career.

For baseball players getting 175k this is crazy. They have their 100 million dollar guranteed contracts and then when they retire they pull in a cool 175k a year.

I don't have any pension where I work for when I retire(if I'm lucky) at 65+ years old and most of them will make more in 1 season of football then I will my entire life. They work for 10 years and we have to work for 50 years.

When we can finally retire when we're just about dead we won't be getting 24k a year in social security after paying in thousands a year our entire life.

I feel so bad for them and their fat bank accounts and mansions and only getting their 24k of pension a year. They don't even need it after all the money they made.

The ones that are complaining the most are probably the crackheads that spent most of their money on hookers, strippers and cocaine/crack cocaine during their career and now they could use the money.

You are very wrong my friend! Alot of these players only players 4-5 years, and there salaries were horrible! Check out the article below, here is a clip;

And in real dollar terms, salary expenditures have risen even faster than television revenue. The $23,000 average player salary in 1970 (worth some $115,000 in today's dollars), was one-twelfth the current $1.4 million average.

http://www.forbes.com/2006/12/22/mvp-nfl-bargain-biz-cx_tvr_1222nflmvp_print.html

[HHURRICANE]

I don't feel bad for them and their 25k pension a year. Most of them made about 25+ million from the game during their career.

For baseball players getting 175k this is crazy. They have their 100 million dollar guranteed contracts and then when they retire they pull in a cool 175k a year.

I don't have any pension where I work for when I retire(if I'm lucky) at 65+ years old and most of them will make more in 1 season of football then I will my entire life. They work for 10 years and we have to work for 50 years.

When we can finally retire when we're just about dead we won't be getting 24k a year in social security after paying in thousands a year our entire life.

I feel so bad for them and their fat bank accounts and mansions and only getting their 24k of pension a year. They don't even need it after all the money they made.

The ones that are complaining the most are probably the crackheads that spent most of their money on hookers, strippers and cocaine/crack cocaine during their career and now they could use the money.

????????????????????

Dude, you've been on a tear this week. Our own Conrad Dobler is currently getting ****ed by the NFL. They refused him diability even though he walks around with a cane. This is about the leagues greed. PERIOD.

[YardRat]

Gene Upshaw is a tool, period, IMO but face the fact...he gets paid to represent the current membership. The pension shortfall for the older players is primarily the fault of the leadership of the union during their era.

Having said that, if the membership had any conscience at all they'd be willing to give concessions for current players who really are making big money and offset that for better pensions, health care, disability etc for the guys that actually put the league on the map and in every home in the country.

But we all know that's not how collective bargaining units work in today's world. It's really all about 'me', not 'us'.

[ParanoidAndroid]

:violin:

Those poor, poor NFL players.
I mean, making just a few thousand more than a retiring nurse, policeman, fireman, or teacher. That's outrage!
Especially since they gave 10 years of their lives to playing a sport for a living.
I mean, all those civil servants only give 30 years of their lives working their asses off. Not only that, they make less than 10% on an NFL player's salary.
Why should they deserve a pension if they are worth so little in the first place.
I know this is about the league's greed, but tell me how this is different than any other corporation or government.

[BillsFever21]

Of course I realize the players of 40 years ago didn't make that kind of money. They should get more but the players of this era have no reason to complain.

There are also many regular workers of the workforce from 30 years ago who only made about 8k a year with bad backs,ect, from doing tough work at their jobs. People with heavy lifting jobs and crap like that.

Sure the players of 30 years ago are getting screwed but they knew the risk when they joined football. And for that era of life they were playing in they made a good salary. Not like the ones in this era but they made a hell of a lot more then your average person back then.

There are many older Americans that worked physical jobs and made 1/3 of that money. And like others said, Gene Upshaw isn't responsible for the players from 30 years ago.

Your pension should be based on how much you made during your career. Does somebody like Peyton Manning deserve a huge pension when he retires?

If the players didn't make so much damn money in this era of football maybe they could raise the pensions and pool some of that money together for the older players that built the foundation before them.

[BillsFever21]

And what about college football players that never made the NFL and will never see the big bucks. They put their bodies on the line for 4 years and some of them suffered injuries that will hurt them the rest of their lives. They aren't getting anything at all.

And the players of this era that will only play for 4 years or so they will still make a good chunk of change in that 4 years. They will make more in them 4 years as the average person making 40-50k a year will in their lifetime.

[Typ0]

Let them complain. They look like ******s for not negotiating better terms during their careers and whiners for complaining about it now.

I don't see the guys who built the empire state building complaining about not having a decent pension. My dad walked into a nuclear reactor got cancer and died( maybe not related who knows). Point being those are the breaks...the people that build industries are rarely compensated and the ones that come after them reap the rewards. Too bad you old farts with bad knees.

[Night Train]

You're right. The NFL shouldn't support them despite their injuries and direct problems related to football.

THEY SHOULD JUST GO ON MEDICADE, WELFARE AND SOCIAL SERVICES. THAT WAY, WE THE MILLIONAIRE TAXPAYERS CAN SUPPORT THEM !!!

BRILLIANT !!!!

[Typ0]

You're right. The NFL shouldn't support them despite their injuries and direct problems related to football.

THEY SHOULD JUST GO ON MEDICADE, WELFARE AND SOCIAL SERVICES. THAT WAY, WE THE MILLIONAIRE TAXPAYERS CAN SUPPORT THEM !!!

BRILLIANT !!!!


they all make more money than people on those services.

[BillsFever21]

It's too bad for the old NFL players. If they raised their pensions they would have to raise everybody's, including the players of the last 15 years who made multi millions of dollars.

The NFL should do something but there are plenty of people from old jobs that need help. There are many people in America who are disabled from tough work at their previous jobs and they won't see any type of a pension at all.

If some of the filthy rich football players of today care they could donate a certain percentage of their millions and millions of dollars to help out the older players.

My grandpa laid heavy bricks for a living and isn't in the best of shape right now because of it. There isn't any pension or anybody to help pay his hospital bills because of it. This is the way America works. It's not what you did for me in the past it's what you can do for me in the future.

In America you either work with your brains or your muscles. Unfortunately the people who have to work with their muscles will probably have long term effects of that kind of work.

I used to have heavy lifting jobs. I hurt my back from it and now developed 2 herniated discs because of it. I would easily need an operation if I wanted to go that route. I don't have anybody who pays for my monthly visits and medication from the doctors and it's that way because of past working experiences.

I can't be on my feet for more then an hour or so without it hurting and that's without doing anything physical. That's just standing there. Luckily I have a suit and tie job now where I don't have to do physical work or I would never be able to do it. I don't receive any help from past employers.

Sure my condition isn't as bad as theirs but it's still a condition from work that has easily cost me thousands of dollars worth of treatment so far and thousands of dollars more to come through the rest of my life. I can't go out and do things that normal people can do and have fun playing backyard sports or things that involves physical activities. I just have to live with it.

[Typ0]

I remember the day my grandfather retired. Worked his whole life in a boiler maker shop. Couldn't hear for ****. He was proud of that pen they gave him when he left that friday. That's all he got.

[BillsFever21]

I wish I had a pension from my past employers from heavy lifting. My bad back from working stops me from doing many things I would like to do and things that many other people can do.

I'm not crippled or anything like them guys but I have a bad back which stops me from being able to do many everyday activities that people without a herniated disc are able to do.

I don't get any pension from it. If I went on disability I would get $10,000 a year. I'm still young now. Who knows what my back will be like 25 years from now. I won't have any help from past employers that caused my injury from doing work for their company.

It's the long term effects from doing manual labor that causes them types of injuries and people in my case and many others won't have any help. Them companies we worked for make millions and millions of dollars and are sitting pretty the same way the NFL is right now. They won't be giving me any money to help out with my back.

[BillsFever21]

I remember the day my grandfather retired. Worked his whole life in a boiler maker shop. Couldn't hear for ****. He was proud of that pen they gave him when he left that friday. That's all he got.

You mean he didn't get a pension? That is absurd.

[Typ0]

I wish I got a pension from that pizza shop that made my ass fat too!

[Typ0]

You mean he didn't get a pension? That is absurd.


these people are way off here fever. Pensions are about financial planning. They are an insurance plan of a sort. You don't go back after the fact and expect a pension. Pensions are about the dollar value when the dollars are being earned not about todays dollar values.

[Typ0]

Molson's owes me 100 grand!

[kgun12]

they all make more money than people on those services.

Not true, come on guys do some research before you make those statements

Check out this article from the Oakland tribune:

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4176/is_20060205/ai_n16051969/print


This is more what players are making:

ESPN's "Outside the Lines" tackled the subject the other day, speaking to several retirees, none of whom is comfortable in retirement. Former Buffalo guard Joe DeLamielleure, for example, took his pension at age 45, because that was when he needed the money. He could wait no longer.

He gets $992 per month.

A baseball player with a similar career span who collects at age 45 would get about $6,000 per month.

If DeLamielleure, who played 13 seasons and entered the Hall of Fame in 2003, had waited until he was 55, he would have gotten about $2,200 per month, according to ESPN

I bet those service jobs make more that 11940 a year in pension.

[BillsFever21]

How many people are comfortbale in retirement? Especially the workforce from 30 years ago.

How about CFL or AFL players? Them guys don't make jack ***** even in this era and when they retire with hurting bodies from being hit their entire life they aren't living comfortable in retirement either.

Like Typo said, you can't go back 25 years later and expect more money. They agreed to them terms years ago. That was good money back then. They should realized inflation would go up 5x the amount over the next 30 years.

quote=kgun12]Not true, come on guys do some research before you make those statements

Check out this article from the Oakland tribune:

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4176/is_20060205/ai_n16051969/print


This is more what players are making:

ESPN's "Outside the Lines" tackled the subject the other day, speaking to several retirees, none of whom is comfortable in retirement. Former Buffalo guard Joe DeLamielleure, for example, took his pension at age 45, because that was when he needed the money. He could wait no longer.

He gets $992 per month.

A baseball player with a similar career span who collects at age 45 would get about $6,000 per month.

If DeLamielleure, who played 13 seasons and entered the Hall of Fame in 2003, had waited until he was 55, he would have gotten about $2,200 per month, according to ESPN

I bet those service jobs make more that 11940 a year in pension.[/quote]

[Typ0]

Not true, come on guys do some research before you make those statements

Check out this article from the Oakland tribune:

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4176/is_20060205/ai_n16051969/print


This is more what players are making:

ESPN's "Outside the Lines" tackled the subject the other day, speaking to several retirees, none of whom is comfortable in retirement. Former Buffalo guard Joe DeLamielleure, for example, took his pension at age 45, because that was when he needed the money. He could wait no longer.

He gets $992 per month.

A baseball player with a similar career span who collects at age 45 would get about $6,000 per month.

If DeLamielleure, who played 13 seasons and entered the Hall of Fame in 2003, had waited until he was 55, he would have gotten about $2,200 per month, according to ESPN

I bet those service jobs make more that 11940 a year in pension.

So Joe D. couldn't manage his finances (and we don't know why) so he had to cash out is pension 20 years early and you are now saying that he should get the amount he would have gotten had he waited? That's rediculous.

And that is what he gets from his pension. He's also a writer and radio personality. I don't know what he gets paid for those things but along with his pension I'm sure he's well over the poverty line.

[SABURZFAN]

I don't feel bad for them and their 25k pension a year. Most of them made about 25+ million from the game during their career.



:bs:

[kgun12]

So Joe D. couldn't manage his finances (and we don't know why) so he had to cash out is pension 20 years early and you are now saying that he should get the amount he would have gotten had he waited? That's rediculous.

And that is what he gets from his pension. He's also a writer and radio personality. I don't know what he gets paid for those things but along with his pension I'm sure he's well over the poverty line.

The NFL is the richest sport orginization in the world and can only pay a play that leaves the game knowing he is going to have trouble getting out of bed every morning for the rest of his life, not to mention the pain just walking will cause. Yes I realize they choose this profession, but , if you noticed the next line; "A baseball player with a similar career span who collects at age 45 would get about $6,000 per month." Sorry you don't agree, but I just think it's wrong!

[kgun12]

And what about college football players that never made the NFL and will never see the big bucks. They put their bodies on the line for 4 years and some of them suffered injuries that will hurt them the rest of their lives. They aren't getting anything at all.

And the players of this era that will only play for 4 years or so they will still make a good chunk of change in that 4 years. They will make more in them 4 years as the average person making 40-50k a year will in their lifetime.

The college player got tuition, room, board, and travel. My son just finished 4 years at clackson University at $44,000 a year X 4 equals $176,000. What do you think I costs at these big D1 schools a year? So I think they are well "paid" for there time, and the good ones move on to the pro and cash in!

Did you ever hear Frank Giffords story when he went in to his first contact with the Giants? He was there #1 pick and I think #1 over all. They called him in and said we'll give you $6,000, yes 6 thousand a year, he said I want $8,000, they said sorry have a good life. Back then you were the property of the team there was no going back into the draft the following year. Guess what he played for $6,000 a year. So by your for 4 years that's $24,000.